I am A 56 year old woman. I have experienced regular debilitating excruciating headache pain with stiff neck. Starts with a feeling of pressure behind nose and spreads all around both sides of head. I am extremely dizzy, have blurred vision and cannot walk in a straight line. At exactly the same time I have an intense pain in both buttocks with pain down back of both legs to the knee. There is no pain in my back between neck and buttocks. These two things happen always at the same time, never one without the other. Sometimes a sick numb ache runs down both arms, fingers tingle and shake. Sometimes I am totally immobilised and cannot walk forward. Recently this happened relentlessly for five days and I had to be hospitalised and given morphine for the pain. Off work 9 weeks. Neurologists did not know what could be causing this as they could not equate the head pain with the buttock/leg pain happening at same time. I have had MRI of cervical spine and await a lumbar spine MRI. In the interim I received a copy if letter from Neuro which I don t understand. I quote some of it below. I am taking gabapentin and nefopan to treat symptoms whilst they try to find out the cause. They call me the mystery patient as my symptoms are unusual. I have never seen an Osteopath only Neurosurgeons. MRI showed prominent broad based disc complexes from C4/5 to C6/7 thought to be causing moderate cord compression at C4/5 and C5/6 with probable myelopathic signal change. Compressive exit foraminal stenosis were present bilaterally atC4/5 and C5/6 and on the left at C6/7. No physical signs of a cervical myelopathy at examination. Do you have any idea what could be the cause, it may be come clearer once I have the lumbar spine MRI. Would if beneficial to see an Osteopath also. I would really appreciate your opinion as no one seems to know what this.